


Fair Tactics

by Meatball42



Category: Leverage
Genre: Comfort Food, Established Relationship, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Multi, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:54:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25434961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meatball42/pseuds/Meatball42
Summary: “You should stay with us,” said Parker. “We have a huge bed.”
Relationships: Alec Hardison/Parker/Eliot Spencer
Comments: 10
Kudos: 158
Collections: Battleship 2020, Battleship 2020 - Red Team





	Fair Tactics

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BlueWolves](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueWolves/gifts).



Parker’s eyes flew open at seven in the morning and she stared at Alec until he woke up, too.

“It is too damn early,” he groaned, covering his face with his arm.

“I want to go see Eliot,” Parker insisted.

“It’s too early for him, too. Man’s gotta get his beauty sleep.”

“He said he only sleeps 90 minutes a night.”

Alec turned over and put his face in the pillow. “I think that was a joke.”

Parker was quiet for a minute. That wasn’t a good sign, and Alec peeled his face out of the blessed darkness of the pillow.

She was mulling something over: there was a crease between her eyebrows and she’d started chewing on her lip.

“What’s the matter, baby?”

Parker turned onto her stomach to face him better, bouncy.

Bouncy was a good sign. They were all exhausted after the last mission, a 48-hour sprint where all three of them had to fight goons at some point. Alec could use some more sleep, but at least he didn’t maybe have a concussion, like Eliot.

Not that he was thinking about Eliot, maybe with a concussion, all alone at his safehouse they politely pretended not to know about.

“I don’t like him being alone,” Parker said.

Alec loved it when he and Parker were on the same wavelength. But not more than he disliked being split up from their partner-in-crime.

He sighed heavily. “Eliot’s a lone-wolf kinda guy, Parker. He needs his space. And he wouldn’t take kindly to it if he knew that we’ve already bugged his apartment.”

“I didn’t bug his apartment,” Parker said quickly. At Alec’s raised eyebrow, she deflated. “It’s only a short-range mic.”

“Anyway. Guy likes being alone. He’s not like us.”

A smile teased at Parker’s lips, slow, like it came these days since she’d gotten more comfortable with letting emotions happen. She scooted closer to Alec, tucking under the arm he raised for her.

“You like being with me?” she said sweetly. She threaded their fingers together and Alec squeezed her hand.

“I like being with you for many reasons. But I like having someone with me after tough missions. That’s how I roll. Eliot, he wants to go lick his wounds. It’s just his way.”

Parker scowled and started chewing on her lip again. Alec kissed her temple.

“Hey. You got me up this early in the morning, we gonna have a little nookie or what?”

He poked her side with the hand that was still holding hers, then did it again, making her arm move. The frown disappeared as she gave in to the teasing, pushing Alec onto his back and gently pressing the hand she held down onto the bed at his side. Her warm body settled over his.

“I thought you were too tired.”

“Ehh, you know,” Alec equivocated. “I could go either way.”

Parker kissed him, slow and lazy and still tired. It didn’t go anywhere and Alec had to break off after a while to yawn. Parker tucked her head into his neck and they fell back to sleep like that.

  
  
  


It was several months and a few long conversations later that they made a move. After another hard mission, they lured Eliot back to the apartment with ‘time-sensitive’ information on their next heist. They got the business out of the way, and it looked like Eliot was feeling ready to leave, collecting their coffee mugs and taking them to the kitchen.

Alec and Parker nodded at each other in a final assurance.

Parker was waiting when Eliot turned away from the kitchen sink, standing too close and staring at him too hard.

Eliot flinched. “Dammit Parker.”

Alec was leaning against the breakfast bar, watching them, and he snickered.

Parker had her eyes on the prize, as usual. “You should stay with us,” said Parker. “We have a huge bed.”

Eliot gave Parker, and then Alec, a familiar look that suggested they were both crazy, but he was being polite in not talking about it.

“It’s a pretty nice bed,” Alec said. “She picked it out special.”

Eliot squinted at them, but he wasn’t as dumb as he seemed. “...You two want to sleep with me? Like. You mean for sex, right? This isn’t some new age cuddle therapy, is it?”

Parker nodded. “Sex would be good. We could get married if you want.”

Eliot and Alec both snapped their attention to her.

“-the hell, Parker?”

“Uh, that was not part of the discussion.”

Eliot glared at Alec. “You all discussed this?”

“Of course we discussed this, what kinda outfit do you think this is?” Alec said indignantly. “A _committed relationship_ doesn’t just go out beggin’ for spare dick without talkin’ about it first, and we are in a _committed relationship._ ”

Eliot’s face screwed up in disgust. “I ain’t buyin’ nobody any rings.”

“Of course not, we’d steal them,” Parker pointed out.

“Parker, you can’t just spring this on us,” Eliot told her. He sounded spitting mad, but he did a lot of the time, so Alec wasn’t taking it too serious.

Parker looked between them. “Why not?”

“...it is kinda her thing,” Alec allowed. “I mean, not that I’m okay with this, like, we all need to have a looong talk about how we need to have loong talks before we go jumpin’ into _marriage_ talk, but.” He threw his empty Capri Sun pack on the table, not sure where he was going with that.

Eliot was shaking his head. “Okay okay okay, can we- let’s go back a few dozen steps.”

“Yeah let’s,” Alec interrupted. “ Eliot. Would you be at all interested in staying over tonight and letting us take care of you.”

Eliot eyed him up strangely. “...Again are you talking about sex, or, like, I don’t know what you’re going for, man-”

“I think we’ve been pretty gosh-darned obvious what we’re going f-”

“There will be sex!” Parker snapped. When they both shut up and looked at her, she settled down. “But also, you hurt your back and we want to make sure you’re okay,” she said to Eliot.

“I’m fine,” he said defensively. “S’just a bruise.”

“Like a bruise on your kidney,” Alec deadpanned. “You act like I don’t have eyes on you all the time, bruh, I know what goes down.”

“Whatever, I don’t need any kumbaya to make it better.”

“We’ll order pizza and nachos from the gastropub downtown,” Parker interrupted the burgeoning glaring. “The Oregon Otters are playing the Quebec City Quails tonight, so there’ll probably be loooots of fighting.” She grinned at Eliot as he visibly wavered.

“You got beer?”

“You’re gonna drink with a damaged kidney?” Alec pointed out.

“We got a locally-brewed, non-alcoholic, super hoppy dumb beer thing for you,” Parker finished. “So what’s it gonna be? Food, fighting, and sex? Or your cold, lonely loft?”

Eliot shook his head. “Fine, alright, you win. Wait. How do you know I have a loft?”

“I’ll call for the food!” Parker dashed out of the kitchen.

Eliot watched her go. He sighed heavily, then came to slump on the breakfast bar across from Alec. “Jesus, the last time I had a girl talkin’ about marriage…”

Alec laughed. “I got no idea where that came from, for the record.”

“S’not even legal,” Eliot said.

And then they looked at each other and grinned just a little, because they broke a dozen laws a day, every day, and it would never not be cool.

  
  
  


Alec went to their bedroom when Parker didn’t come back after a few minutes. He found her on the bed with a blindfold on and one of her more complicated locks in her hands, which meant she was excited about Eliot agreeing to stay and wanted to calm down. He sat on the bed to let her know he was there and waited for her to finish.

When the lock clicked open, Parker took a few long breaths and then removed the blindfold. Her smile looked closer to what a normal person might think of as excited, rather than crazy.

“You know… I don’t think we have any non-alcoholic beer in this house,” Alec commented.

“That’s what Seamless is for.”

“Heyyy, I taught you well!”

Parker’s eyes sparkled. “As the mastermind, it’s important for me to understand the strengths of my teammates.”

Alec leaned in, grinning. “Oh yeah? Talk smart to me baby.”

Parker kissed him until the volume on Eliot’s game turned way up in the living room. She took his hand and they obeyed Eliot’s passive-aggressive call to join him.

Eliot glanced at them when they came in, taking in their joined hands, and quickly looked back at the screen. “It’s starting,” he said gruffly.

Moving in tandem, Parker and Alec sat on either side of him on the big couch. Eliot’s cheeks pinked when they each took one of his hands.

“How’m I gonna eat like this?” he grumbled. But he didn’t let go.


End file.
